1. Field of the Invention
This application is related to integrated circuits and more particularly to data communications links between integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, industry standards for high-speed data communications links may require that a transmit interface satisfy various specifications including output impedance specifications and static power consumption specifications. For example, the output impedance of a typical driver circuit of an exemplary transmit interface substantially matches a particular termination impedance (e.g., an output impedance of 50 Ohms on each node of a differential output node to match a load of 100 Ohms) to reduce signal reflections. In addition, for a particular application, that same driver may need to meet a particular power consumption specification (e.g., a transmit interface operating at a bit rate in the range of approximately 400 Million Transfers per second (MT/s) to approximately 2.8 GT/s may have a maximum power consumption in the range of approximately 5.5 mW to approximately 14.2 mW of DC power per output bit). In addition, at high-data rates, the particular application may require the transmit interface to implement equalization techniques to counter predictable effects of channel distortion on the signal. Accordingly, techniques for transmitting differential signals over a communications link that meet performance requirements of communications applications are desired.